Abstract
Main imaging findings:
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CT and MRI serial scans may show rapid atrophy progression, with ventricular enlargement and progressive cortical thinning.
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MRI:
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DWI represents the most accurate MRI sequence to reveal brain abnormalities in prion diseases.
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Typical pattern: bilateral hyperintensities on T2-weighted, FLAIR, and DWI scans with cortical and basal ganglia involvement.
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During disease progression, these intensity abnormalities may decrease or disappear on DWI studies.
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Pulvinar Sign: confluent hyperintensity in the pulvinar and in the dorsomedial thalami on T2-weighted, FLAIR, and DWI scans; sensitive marker of variant CJD.
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Double hockey-stick sign: confluent hyperintensity in the dorsomedial thalami on T2-weighted, FLAIR, and DWI scans; sensitive marker of variant CJD.
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Absence of contrast enhancement.
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FDG-PET can be used to show hypometabolism of the frontal cortex, thalamus, and caudate nucleus when other biomarkers (i.e., MRI, CSF, EEG) are not available.
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Filippi, M., Agosta, F. (2021). Rapidly Progressive Dementias. In: Imaging Dementia. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66773-3_5
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